Tuesdays With Morrie - 1999

What It Is: A feel good, made-for-TV movie based on a best-seller. Mitch discovers that an old college professor is dying and begins spending every Tuesday with him for lessons regarding the meaning of life.

Why I Watched It: Will recommended it to me and working with the same guy for 6 years tends to give him a pretty good grasp of my movie tastes.

What I Thought: Will was right, I loved it! Tuesdays With Morrie made me laugh, made me cry, and made me analyze the way I'm living my life.

It was that last part that sold the whole package for me. I fancy myself a philosopher and completely agree with the iconic Socrates quote, "An unexamined life is not worth living." I watch a LOT of movies and I probably like over half of them, but my favorite films, my very special favorites, all leave me with pearls of wisdom that I spend the rest of the week thinking about. The very best movies actually inspire me to change the way I have been living my life. Yes, it's actually happened a few times. Maybe I'll do a special post about them sometime.

I digress. Back to Morrie...

The plot itself follows the pretty sad tale of a financially successful, but troubled, man re-establishing a relationship with his favorite college professor. It just so happens that this same professor has mere weeks to live. If that sounds sad to you, then this movie will definitely make you cry. It jerks the tears like a pro. Yet, if Tuesdays With Morrie was only about this interpersonal drama it would lose 80% of its real worth. Ultimately, Morrie has a message. He wants to share it and his old student, Mitch, is desperate to absorb all that he can.

Morrie spends most of the movie spouting off pearls and observations that are far too numerous to mention here. I'll pull some examples off of the quotes page on IMDB:

- When you learn how to die, you learn how to live.
- Death ends a life, not a relationship.
- The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.
- We must love one another or die.

All the bits of wisdom are very Gandhi/Buddha-like and they mostly deal with how we relate to others and ourselves. If any of the above phrases sparked a moment of contemplation, you should really see this movie.

Highlights: The story about Morrie's "silent" lecture, 80% of the stuff coming out of Morrie's mouth, Jack Lemmon's last role as the always upbeat Morrie, and the awesome-as-always Hank Azaria wonderfully portraying Morrie's student (though he was really just speaking for the student in all of us).

Who Should See It: Philosophers, deep thinkers, drama fans, and people that enjoy the "message" behind movies like American Beauty, Pay It Forward, etc.

How Soon: Rent it! Netflix it! See this movie!

Tuesdays with Morrie